"Freedom, Citizenship, Diversity, and Integration"
1-4 Jumaada al-Akhir 1438 AH / 28 February - 3 March 2017
Translated by:
Al-Azhar Center for Translaton
In the name of Allah, the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy
All praise is due to Allah, and Allah’s Peace and Blessings be upon our master the Prophet Muhammad and upon his noble Companions.
Distinguished fellow panel members,
Ladies and gentlemen,
In the name of Al-Azhar Al-Sharif and the Muslim Council of Elders (MCE), I would like to welcome you to Egypt. All of Egypt welcome you and feels the utmost pleasure for hosting such an important conference. This conference comes under exceptional circumstances and at a difficult time not only for our region but the whole world. This is especially true amid the wars that have broken out in the Arab and Muslim world without any reasonable causes which deem acceptable for man in the 21st century.
It is appalling and equally sad and painful that religion is depicted in such miserable circumstances to be the main reason behind these wars. It is being depicted to people that religion was the key motive behind the terrorist attacks perpetrated against the World Trade Center, the Bataclan theater, the subway stations, and the killing of innocent lives in Nice city and other many cities in the East and the West. We feel very sorry for such terrifying scenes of terrorist attacks that are taking place on an increasing scale. It hurts us more that along with such growing wave of terrorism, extremism is growing while the sound understanding of the reality of divine religions and the wisdom behind the prophet's missions is diminishing. Moreover, there is a big conflict between this sound understanding of religions and the falsified interpretations that undermine the correct religious practices and make the sacred texts a tool misused by few number of criminals. Indeed, religious texts have turned away to be like a gun hired by whoever offers the highest price among arms dealers, war brokers, and theorists of new colonialism.
If you contemplate the condition of such misled groups that have deviated from the right path of religion, you will notice that whenever they try to come together under the banner of Islam, they start to accuse each other of treachery and disbelief. That leads you to realize that they have nothing to do with religion and that they just exploit the name of Islam to involve it in such bloodshed under contradictory pretexts.
Another fact that help us identify the falsehood of such bloody calls is that those extremists are not concerned with correcting the religion which they claim to have been distorted, out of their so claimed intellectual renewal and legal reasoning, but rather the thirst they have for bloodshed, the killing of innocent lives, and the destruction of man's achievements, once they have an opportunity for that.
Until very recently, such misguided extremist groups were too weak and of few number that they could not cause any danger or harm to the image of Muslims.
However, today they have become very close to mobilizing the whole world against our righteous religion. We can take as one example the phenomenon of Islamophobia in the northern and southern states in the West; Muslim citizens are suffering from the consequences of such phenomenon.
We are not here today to investigate the phenomenon of Islamophobia, nor terrorism that feeds it and promotes the feelings of hatred and enmity against Islam and Muslim.
It is not our question now to find whether terrorism is a local or rather an international strategy plotted maliciously against Muslims with support from those who pretend to be defending human rights. An equal malicious support is generously provided by those who claim to be catering for the global peace, coexistence, liberty, equality, and the other claims stated in the international covenants which we memorize by heart.
I believe that investigating such issues should be our primary concern for which forums should be organized and religious men, intellectuals, and the freemen in our world should seek to reveal to the whole world. In so doing, they will identify those responsible for the nonstop bloodshed and lives killed every minute to please those who sponsor such claims.
The fair-minded person who looks at the phenomenon of Islamophobia will easilyrealize the illogical paradox and the double standard policy on the part of the international community towards Islam on the one hand and towards Christianity and Judaism on the other hand. This is the status quo, albeit all the three religions face the same accusation of being the source of religious violence and terrorism. The West never cared for the waves of Christian and Jewish fanaticism without making any objection to their practices. However, when it comes to Islam, the West has done everything to hold it accountable while leveling endless accusations against it and distorting its image.
Yes, the most terrible violent acts in the history of Christianity and Judaism were easily tolerated by the West where religion was said to have nothing to do with terrorism.
Examples of such violent acts include the bombings carried out by Michael Bray of Women's health clinics, the bomb attack that targeted the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma city by Timothy McVeigh, and the hate speech by David Koresh and the subsequent violent acts in Texas, not to mention the religious conflicts in Northern Ireland and the fact that many religious institutions were involved in raping and killing more than two hundred and fifty thousand Muslims in Bosnia.
Ladies and gentlemen,
God knows that I do not mean by such lengthy introduction to call to our memories the painful scenes of such terrorist acts or to promote conflict among human beings. This has never been the message of divine religions, Al-Azhar Al-Sharif, the East which is known for its tolerance, or the civilized West. However, I just want to say that if the religious institutions in the East and the West fail to stand together against Islamophobia, it will target both Christianity and Judaism sooner or later. We will regret at a time when regret is of no avail and the common saying "what goes around comes around" will prove very true. Indeed, the world has witnessed a rise in the number of the conspirers against religion, atheists and those who promote the belief in the death of God, the advocates of materialism who are brought forth by Nazism and communism.
On the other hand, there are those who call for the legalization of illicit drugs, the destruction of the fabric of family lifestyle, the application of social sex system, and the right to abortion. Other groups now encourage carrying out male and female transformation surgeries and seek to replace national identities with globalization to remove any differences between peoples and eliminate their cultures. Thus, they erase their cultural, religious, and historical characteristics to serve their own purposes. Such evil calls are now developing and the EU authorities are being asked to carry them out.
In fact, these calls are getting more strength and their advocates will attack the divine religions since they depict religion as the sole source of wars; they say that Christianity gave birth to the Crusades and that Islam now gives rise to terrorism and bloodshed, insisting that the only solution is to totally eliminate religion from the whole world. They are the same people who turn a deaf ear to the deaths of civil wars waged by atheists and pro-globalization fanatics during the second half of the 20th century. Religion had nothing to do with such wars and a pupil in his early school days can prove the fact that the number of the victims of the wars waged in the name of religion since the pre-common era to the present is hardly a tenth of the number of those killed in the wars launched by the advocates of the social schools. Records of history refer that millions of innocent lives were killed, tortured, or exiled in response for false prophecies that none of them has come true.
Great, knowledgeable gathering,
I think you agree with me that the mere defense of divine religions against the accusations of terrorism is no longer enough in light of the enormous challenges we face. It is time to take a further step by providing practical ethical models out from the religions to address such volatile reality. In my opinion, such step requires making some necessary arrangements, on the top of them is the removal of any suspicions or tensions among the religious leaders. That is because if peace could not be achieved between the religious leaders first, they will never be able to give it to the people. Such step can be achieved through getting to know each other and to have cooperation and integration among us. The religion of Islam which I feel proud to have it as my religion calls our attention to this fact in the following Qur'anic verse, memorized by both Muslims and Christians alike, in which Allah Almighty says, "O you mankind, surely We created you of a male and a female, and We have made you races and tribes that you may get mutually acquainted. Surely the most honorable among you in the sight of Allah are the most pious; surely Allah is Ever-Knowing, Ever-Cognizant." (Qur'an 49:13)
Islam also stresses a very natural human right, namely the right to freedom and living without any pressures, especially in terms of one's belief and religious affiliation; Allah says, "There is no compulsion in religion." (Qur'an 2:256)
There is also another verse that reads, "And had your Lord willed, those on earth would have believed - all of them entirely. Then, [O Muhammad], would you compel the people in order that they become believers?" (Qur'an 10:99)
Allah Almighty also says, "Your duty is nothing except the proclamation of (the Message)." (Qur'an 42:48)
Likewise, among the instructions included in Prophet Muhammad's, peace and blessings be upon him, letter to the people of Yemen is what follows, "Whoever dislikes Islam among the Jews or Christians should not be compelled to abandon his/her religion." This is just one example of the many Islamic authentic texts that establish theright to freedom for all people.
As Al-Azhar Al-Sharif calls for the adoption of 'citizenship' to replace the concept of'minority', it does so based on a constitutional principle applied by the Prophet of Islam,peace and blessings be upon him, to the first Muslim community in history, namely the Muslim state of Madina. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, considered all the Muslim, Christians, and Jewish residents of Madina equal citizens in terms of their responsibilities and rights. The Islamic heritage passed to us this role model propheticdocument that fully recognizes the constitutional rights in a way that has never beenknown to the written history.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I may have taken too much time to deliver my speech. Indeed, your excellent attention has encouraged me to speak out all the cares and pains I have written down on this sheetof paper. In conclusion, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to H.E. Mr. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, for his patronage of this conference, "Freedom, Citizenship, Diversity, and Integration". I highly value his sincereefforts in calling for the promotion of peaceful coexistence, freedom, and citizenship. Ialso extend my thanks to our honorable guests as well as our brothers and sisters and the employees for the hard work they have done in the preparation for this event. I hope it will meet your expectations and I apologize to our local and international guests for any non-deliberate shortcomings on our part in terms of serving you in the best manner.
Thanks to all of you,
May Allah’s peace and Blessings be upon you!
Prof. Dr. Ahmad At-Tayyeb
The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar